Not that it was beautiful but that, in the end, there was a certain sense of order there, something worth learning.
(Anne Sexton)

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

to the courthouse

I've got jury duty tomorrow. Have to leave practically at the crack of dawn (that might be a slight exaggeration) to be at the courthouse by 8:30 and then sit all day waiting with baited breath for my name to be pulled out of a big lottery-type machine thing.

I've actually been looking forward to jury duty. I've only been summoned once before and the judge kicked me off the jury because I was dating another judge's son. Seriously! Now I'm not, so here's to hoping I'll be deemed worthy of partaking in our wonderful justice system.

I was working myself up into a tizzy of self-righteous rage today, though. (Shocking, right?) I was mad because my cell phone has a camera, and cell phones with cameras aren't allowed in the courthouse*, and I never wanted the damned camera, and when I had to buy a new phone in August of 2009 after nearly drowning in a torrential downpour while walking down Fort Washington Avenue from a rain-drenched brunch at New Leaf Cafe, I tried to buy a phone without a camera. And I failed. Apparently they don't even make them anymore.

Tomorrow after I'm set free from the courthouse I have to make a mad dash all the way back uptown to meet up with a friend who just got back from over two years abroad in Sydney. And I was worried I'd either have to check my cell phone and then be delayed in leaving the courthouse to get the damned thing back, or I just wouldn't bring it at all and then have no easy way of getting in touch with said newly-returned friend.

So I found myself raging at the stupidity of being trusted to weigh in on the outcome of a trial, to possibly hold someone's fate in my hands, and yet not be trusted to not take pictures in the courthouse. (Co-worker Manley suggested I demand an explanation for this stupidity from the judge tomorrow, thus guaranteeing immediate release. Little does he know I'd actually like to be on a jury.)

At any rate I got home this evening and dutifully called the number indicated on my summons, and lo and behold the very nice automated telephone lady said that cellphones with cameras are now allowed in the courthouses!**

*I know camera phones aren't allowed in the courthouse because NYJuror told me so (who knew there was a jury duty website, given how old-school those summonses that appear in our mailboxes look?). It took me fifteen freaking minutes to find anything pertaining to cellphones in the courthouse, though,which seems ridiculously ill-designed. Try looking up ANYTHING in their little search engine, and there are no results, or just no useful results.

**NYJuror might want to update its information. You'd think a website dedicated to justice and whatnot would be, you know, accurate.